Every week, a different FADER editor compiles a playlist to highlight a new release and give you a guide to that artist’s web of influences and peers. These Staff Selects live in our Spotify app, alongside GEN Fs from our archives and playlists for each issue. This week, it’s Alex Frank on Ciara's new song, "Sorry."
Ciara’s feathery voice rides an in-between melody better than almost anyone, as evidenced in her new single "Sorry". The song is essentially a ballad set to a beat, perfect for conveying her sweetly high register but still active enough to let her dance in the music video. Though Mariah loves to sing up and down and all over a mid-tempo beat, Ciara's love for a tender song is more in line with a heritage of divas without Whitney-style pipes, women like Aaliyah and Janet Jackson who are more about stylization of the voice than sheer gospel strength, and who are perfect at conveying mystery, moodiness and tenderness. Here are a few songs, starting with two of Ciara's classics, that run the gamut from ballad to banger.
New Playlist: Ciara and the Mid-tempo Banger
